Route 22 widening back in play as commission finds new funding sources, officials say

View full sizeExpress-Times File PhotoThe Lehigh River bridge is scheduled for expansion, but what about the rest of Route 22 in the Allentown area?

Local transportation officials are cautiously optimistic that plans to widen Route 22 could be resurrected on the heels of a state commission report that includes a host of new ideas for up to $2.7 billion in transportation funding.

For Lehigh Valley residents, the Decade of Investment portion has the most pertinent findings. In it, the commission lobbies for more resources for new travel lanes and roads “thereby relieving congestion and improving trip reliability.”

“Without a funding increase, PennDOT will continue its current policy of deferring new capacity projects to focus only on maintenance,” the report states.

Joseph L. Gurinko, chief transportation planner for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, said state Transportation Secretary Barry J. Schoch asked PennDOT for a list of capacity projects if funding was available, and the local district office pitched the Route 22 project.

The mere possibility of resurrecting the project is great news for local officials. Back in 2009, PennDOT officials announced the state was abandoning plans to widen Route 22 and would instead reconfigure two busy interchanges and widen the Route 22 bridge over the Lehigh River in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

Gurinko said it was encouraging the PennDOT district office felt the project was important enough to make Schoch’s list.

"We were thrown away from the table, told there would be no capacity increases," said Bruce Davis, a Bethlehem lawyer and co-founder of the Route 22 Coalition. "Now we've been invited to come back to the table."

But Gurinko cautioned it will be awhile before drivers will enjoy a three-lane ride between Bethlehem and Allentown on Route 22.

Corbett has to sign off on the recommendations, and then get legislative support and move forward with the actual legislation.

“It’s not going to be flipping a switch,” Gurinko said. “We’ll take the good news.”

Davis said the report is actually the beginning of hard work faced by the governor and state officials dealing with the recommendations, and the local officials working on the Route 22 project. Davis noted it took decades to connect Route 22 and Interstate 78 via Route 33.

"It took us 34 years to make that connection. Your readers should commit to being persistent but also patient," Davis said.

The cost of the Route 22 project may change, simply because of the passage of time, Gurinko said.

Officials initially estimated the project would cost between $240 to $320 million. But Gurinko said the cost to the local list of transportation projects that receive state and federal funding, known as the TIP, would be less because the interchange and bridge work is already funded.

Either way, Gurinko said its encouraging to see the state put capacity projects back on the table.

The savings are part of the commission’s modernization suggestions, including:

Making vehicle registration last two years instead of one

Renewing driver’s licenses every 8 years, instead of the current four years

Consolidating driver’s license centers around the state

Offering advertising in the right-of-way

Allowing small games of chance in taverns

The total revenue would gradually increase to $2.5 billion by the end of five years, according to the report.

“TFAC recognized that if it’s going to ask the public to change the way Pennsylvania transportation is funded, Pennsylvanians – in return – expect and deserve to have a modern PennDOT that excels at customer service and delivers quality products,” Schoch said in a news release. “That’s what these modernization strategies are expected to produce.”

But Davis said the proposals and their funding amounts were "modest dollars;" previous studies estimated the state's immediate need for highways, bridges and transit is $3.5 billion.